Monday, January 24, 2011

Paint and paper ladybugs

A library book and an inspirational blog led to this rainy day art activity last week. Annalise borrowed David Soman's "Ladybug Girl at the beach" from our local library and I found this fabulous idea from Sharilyn's blog at lovely designs.

Following Sharilyn's activity, we used a potato half dipped in red paint to create the ladybug bodies, and then experimented until we found the right ingredient for the black spots. A blueberry! And let me assure you, only one blueberry was used in creating these black spots - eating is a much better use for blueberries, I think!

Annalise did the potato and blueberry stamping, and I painted the black antennae. Then to add some 'floatiness' to our bugs, I cut out red tissue paper into rough wing shapes and Annalise 'blueberried' them and glued them on. We might cut them out to use as cards.

After reading "Ladybug Girl at the beach", I'd like to hunt down the first book in this series. Lulu, the ladybug girl, and her dog, Bingo, explore all that the beach has to offer - except the water. My favourite page is when Lulu lists her top eleven favourite flavours for ice-cream: Chocolate Marshmellow, Cherry Vanilla, Pistachio, Butter Pecan, Peppermint Bon Bon, Peanut Butter Chip, Raspberry Swirl, Peach Pie, Almond Fudge, Royal Banana Surprise, and ... Vanilla. Mmm, yum!

Lulu eventually does go in the sea - to rescue her floating pail.

The water is past her knees, and she isn't afraid at all! "Ladybug Girl isn't afraid of anything!"